Friday, November 2, 2007

The Death Dealer

Frank Frazetta's image of a mythic warrior on a devastated field of combat, smoke and fire, bloody battle ax in hand, vultures circling in the background, makes a perfect Tarot Death card. Despite being painted over five centuries after the creation of Tarot, Frazetta's iconic figure is a direct descendant of the mounted Reaper in 15th-century decks. Menacing, implacable, inescapable, Death epitomizes the moral lesson of the Tarot trumps: No matter how powerful, how successful, how noble and virtuous, in this world Time and Fortune will lead all to Death. Mankind's only hope is in the New World of Revelation, after God has defeated the Devil and Death, after resurrection and judgment.

Betrayal, Death, and the Devil all stand
between where we are and the Promised Land.

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